The Epic of Gilgamesh Vs The Messiah - Report Example

Full “The Epic of Gilgamesh” Vs “The Messiah” Beliefs are as important to humankind as breathing itself. This is so because beliefs affect the whole being of a person and in times of life’s challenges, it is what helps a person survive and thrive. This is the reason why beliefs are passed on from one generation to another, making people able to live life the way their ancestors were able to. Encouragements are indirectly noted in literature, which is probably the earliest means of man’s preservation of a people’s culture that incorporates their beliefs. In whatever religion or culture, literature evidently shows that there is a natural human need to link himself to a higher being that is able to help him in his daily endeavors. The Messiah is an Indian story that speaks about Wanekia, the son of the Great Spirit, also known as the sacred man who instructed an Indian tribe how they could overcome their abusive neighbor, the Wasichus who has been making a treaty with them that they never lived up to. Instead, they took hold of the Indian tribe’s land and gave them less than half of what they promised, making them starve and this incident, coupled with the drought, brought the people to seek help from higher beings. The Epic of Gilgamesh specifically the eleventh tablet entitled, The Story of the Flood also gives this kind of tone as the main character spoke to Utanapishtim, seeking his advice about how he could be able to attain a similar godly state the latter attained. The god who was a once a human like Gilgamesh told how he was able to become a god and like him, Gilgamesh has to perform certain tasks to become like one of them. The search for the guidance of a higher being shows in the two stories that the beliefs of the people who own the literatures are similarly drawn to gods. The two aforementioned stories show similarities with the stories in the Bible which could make a reader think how they could be related to each other. The epic spoke about the flood which caused the destruction of the world and the ark made by Utanapishtim as instructed by the god Ea, to save living beings. This is similar to the story of Noah who was instructed by God to make an ark for his family and the animals to stay in because the world was to be destroyed through a flood. In addition, the narration of the sending of the birds after the flood in Utanapishtim’s story is similar to what Noah did however, with Noah, he sent only two kinds of birds. On the other hand, The Messiah believed in life after death, that after this painful and tiresome life, there will be a second life where all the people and animals that died will live again. It also mentions a states that “there will be a new earth that will come and crush the old earth that is dying”, a statement found also in the Bible. The Wasichus to whom the sacred man first went to and who killed him instead of believing him, will not enter this new earth that was mentioned. Being spiritual stories or narrations of things related to spiritual beings, both stories speak about spiritual beings and living a better life however, they are differentiated not only by culture they represent, but also in the presentation of beliefs and the beliefs themselves. The Epic of Gilgamesh speaks of the ‘snatcher’, seemingly a spiritual being which could be synonymous to the devil who is a spiritual enemy of human beings. In contrast, the Indian narrative did not mention any of this kind rather emphasized the Wasichus as their enemy, one they are able to deal with physically, meeting them face to face, as opposed to Gilgamesh’s villain who defeated him by letting him sleep. Both stories reflect man’s desires for a better life or the means to escape the hardships of life on this earth. The Indian Story shows that it was not man who initiated the seeking of the help of the god rather the god, Wanekia who showed himself to the people offering his help. In contrast to this, in the epic, it was the man who sought the help of the god, Utanapishtim, probably having the boldness to speak to him because he observed that the god is similar to him. This could reflect the attitudes of the two races towards the circumstances in life where the Indians could be generally passive as shown by the main character himself who has been wanting to see the god but never made any efforts to do so until the end. The epic on the other hand pictures the Mesopotamian’s active lifestyles, engaging themselves in many endeavors, doing their means to achieve what they want to. The Messiah tells more of the story of how man affects other men unlike the epic which shows how the gods are engaged with the affairs of men. On another note, it could be said that the epic shows a parallelism with the conflict between men in the Indian story, as it portrays the conflict among gods. This could be a means of explanation of people of the misunderstandings among men where one perceives them as normal because if the gods who should be of higher status than men, should be better then they are, still fight among themselves, then it is not an issue to worry men but is a natural event they should view positively. The stories also speak of the ability of overcoming life’s tests with the help of the gods. To Utanapishtim, he was able to accomplish making the ark where he housed the different animals, a really huge construction with the advice of his god, Ea. He deceived his fellowmen to help him make the ark without them suspecting the reason for the construction. Also, Gilgamesh’s successful endeavor to get the boxthorn-like plant from the bottom of the sea as his last resort to becoming like the gods, is a representation of the attainment of whatever a man wills to achieve. In the Indian narrative, there was no comparable task done by the characters however, it also shows that taking action on something makes things done while just becoming a spectator will not take a person somewhere else. Those who heard and sought the help of the son of the Great Spirit were given the hope of a better world, and were even shown things that will come to pass but those who did not believe and did not take action just heard about the works of the sacred man. Hope is one of the themes that could be extracted from the two stories which is an essential, encouraging instrument for a person to hear or have. Gilgamesh showed strength in his attitude which might have affected his readers who believed in him on a positive manner. Even if he was not able to do the challenge of Utanapishtim for him to stay awake for six days and seven nights, he still asked for another chance wherein he was asked to get the boxthorn-like plant from the bottom of the sea as mentioned earlier. Although he was successful in doing so, he was not able to get it to the man who will have to test it first because a serpent took it and shed its skin after taking the plant. The narrator in the Indian story concludes with the expression of a happy feeling indicating the hope for the future that was planned for his people, reflecting his vision. It could be seen in the two stories how they might affect the attitudes of people who believe in them. When one studies them, encouragements could be drawn and readers could be driven to take action in their lives. This is why belief and the choices of what one believes is important because they could either make or break a person. Read More